My Journey as a Difficult Person People can use this picture to boost self-esteem: if you feel like a kitten, see yourself as a lion, and conquer the world. Perhaps I took this technique a touch too far. I thought I was a clever kitten, but my boss showed me that what the world saw was someone who acted lion-like, with anger, defensiveness, and disrespect. One day, I was having a mini-tantrum, and she pointed it out, inviting me to stop. I responded, honestly surprised—I didn’t know what she was talking about. She described me stomping around my cubicle, muttering, agitated, searching through papers, and added that my team members couldn’t focus or get work done. I hadn’t thought anybody else noticed, and didn’t think it impacted anybody else. This “Aha!” moment began a journey of recognizing that people perceived me as difficult. My husband, son, and friends concurred that I tended to flare up and argue. I asked for feedback and began to pay attention to how frequently I felt passionate and annoyed and how I was being perceived. I felt like a tiny person (kitten) inside, but the world saw a confident, educated, competent woman with aggressive tendencies…